East Bay / Tri-Valley PC Repair » PC Repair

We’re a Favorite Place on Google!

Dave Bonds — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:16:12 +0000

Google recently began sending out window decals to local businesses to promote the usage and adoption of QR codes, as well as to promote Google Maps, and they’re calling these businesses Favorite Places. QR codes can be decoded with most smart phones (iPhone, Android phones and Blackberry’s) and will provide a link to the business listing on Google Maps.

The good news: We’ve been selected as one of the few businesses to receive these promotional window decals!

However, because we don’t have an actual office (I work out of my home), I thought I would go ahead and post pictures of the letter Google sent, along with the QR code window decal.

September 30, 2009 -- PC’s Infected with Malware Up 15 Percent In September
August 19, 2009 -- Thanks for visiting our new website
October 15, 2009 -- Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix

Get Rid of those Fake Antivirus programs with Remove Fake Antivirus

Dave Bonds — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:54:47 +0000

If you work on computers, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a rogue anti-virus program. These programs disguise themselves as real antivirus programs, trick the user into installing them, and claim the user has viruses all over their system. Often times, the only virus is the rogue antivirus program itself. These programs can be trojans, viruses, or just an attempt to get the user to pay money by claiming it will get rid of the (non-existent) viruses on your system.. and doing nothing.

The problem is, these Fake antivirus programs can be a real pain to get rid of completely. That’s where Remove Fake Antivirus comes in.

Remove Fake Antivirus 1.32 is used to remove:

1. Cyber Security

2. Alpha Antivirus

3. Braviax

4. Windows Police Pro

5. Antivirus Pro 2010

6. PC Antispyware 2010

7. FraudTool.MalwareProtector.d

8. Winshield2009.com

9. Green AV

10. Windows Protection Suite

11. Total Security 2009

12. Windows System Suite

13. Antivirus BEST

14. System Security

15. Personal Antivirus

16. System Security 2009

17. Malware Doctor

18. Antivirus System Pro

19. WinPC Defender

20. Anti-Virus-1

21. Spyware Guard 2008

22. System Guard 2009

23. Antivirus 2009

24. Antivirus 2010

25. Antivirus Pro 2009

26. Antivirus 360 and

27. MS Antispyware 2009

The program seems to be updated fairly regularly by the software developer, which is good because new rogue antivirus programs are released all the time, and hopefully will be added to future versions.

It is available for download from the developer’s site, where you’ll also find other useful utilities to protect your system.

[via ghacks]

October 15, 2009 -- Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix
September 15, 2009 -- Re-Enable Fixes Windows Features That Have Been Disabled by a Virus
August 30, 2009 -- Lock Windows With Your USB Flash Drive

Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix

Dave Bonds — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:11:30 +0000

I can’t tell you how many times this little application has saved me: Winsock XP Fix

I keep it on my thumb drive so I always have it when I need it. And although the name says XP Fix, it works in other versions of Windows as well.

The Winsockfix Utility will:

Detect your current Operating System

Release the IP address, taking you “Offline”

Reset the TCP stack using Netsh.exe (Windows XP only)

Delete the current Registry TCP and Winsock Values

Import new “Working” Registry Values

Backup any Current “Hosts” file

Replace the “Hosts” file with a default one

Reboot the Computer

Often times, as a computer repair guy, you’ll encounter someone who can’t connect to the internet, and when the problem doesn’t seem to be related to any network hardware, it’s probably related to the TCP/IP stack, the HOSTS file or some registry settings. This mostly happens when adware, malware or viruses change these settings or modify the files needed to connect to the internet. When you get rid of the problem source, the files it modified are still jacked up.

That’s where this program comes to the rescue. Make it the first thing you try, before spending countless hours troubleshooting other things or reinstalling programs, and you’ll have super fast resolution times and can move on to your next customer.

Download Winsock XP Fix

September 15, 2009 -- Re-Enable Fixes Windows Features That Have Been Disabled by a Virus
August 30, 2009 -- Lock Windows With Your USB Flash Drive
August 27, 2009 -- Make a bootable USB installer for Windows XP, Vista, 7 with WinToFlash

PC’s Infected with Malware Up 15 Percent In September

Dave Bonds — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:23:47 +0000

From a report released by Panda Security, makers of Panda Antivirus, the number of PC’s infected with Malware grew 15 percent in the month of September. The numbers are just staggering, showing why you need an up-to-date antivirus AND an anti-malware program installed.

Credit: Panda Security

As you can see from the line graph, the US is just 9th on the list of most infected, with nearly 59 percent of all PC’s infected with malware.

And the following pie chart shows a breakdown of the number and types of those malware infections.

Credit: Panda Security

via CNET News via Panda Security

December 14, 2009 -- We’re a Favorite Place on Google!
August 30, 2009 -- MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Won’t Run? Here’s How To Fix It
October 19, 2009 -- Get Rid of those Fake Antivirus programs with Remove Fake Antivirus

Re-Enable Fixes Windows Features That Have Been Disabled by a Virus

Dave Bonds — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:05:41 +0000

I discovered this program from the incredibly useful site ghacks.net a few days ago. Often times, viruses or malware will disable Windows features, and even after removing the virus these Windows utilities will remain disabled. This is where the program Re-Enable comes in handy.

Developed by Tangomouse the program has the ability to restore functionality to these Windows features:

Windows Registry
Command Line Tool
Windows Task Manager
System Restore Config
Folder Options
Run command

The ghacks article explains that:

The program will display all support functions in its interface. All are checked by default and a click on the Enable button will enable these again. Nothing will happen if they are already enabled. Users who only want to enable a specific function can uncheck the other options in the interface easily.

The file can be downloaded from Softpedia, it works with XP, Vista and Windows 7, and the best thing about it: It’s portable. So you can add it to your thumb drive and have it handy whenever you encounter a Windows installation that has been crippled by a virus.

October 15, 2009 -- Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix
October 19, 2009 -- Get Rid of those Fake Antivirus programs with Remove Fake Antivirus
August 27, 2009 -- Make a bootable USB installer for Windows XP, Vista, 7 with WinToFlash

Fixing a Computer Is Easy, Just Follow This Chart

Dave Bonds — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:50:34 +0000

Via Gizmodo via Morris Rosenthal:

Download the full pdf at Morris Rosenthal’s site (along with many other flowcharts for repairing computers) or this direct link.

August 20, 2009 -- Technology Explained: How Does A Hard Drive Work?
October 19, 2009 -- Get Rid of those Fake Antivirus programs with Remove Fake Antivirus
October 15, 2009 -- Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Won’t Run? Here’s How To Fix It

Dave Bonds — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:28:49 +0000

I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep your anti-virus software up to date, and also use an anti-malware program such as MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. These two programs work together in tandem simply because your anti-virus program won’t detect some “malware” programs, as they are not technically viruses, just malicious software.

Often times these programs disguise themselves as anti-virus programs, I’ve had numerous calls about exactly this type of problem just in the last several weeks. Some of the names of these “Rogue” Anti-virus programs are: Antivirus 2009, Personal Antivirus and many more are listed on Wikipedia: Rogue security software

Usually, I’ve found that I can simply run MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM), UPDATE! then run a scan, and it will detect the problem and is able to remove them. However this latest one, Personal Antivirus 2009 (PAV09), was quite a headache and took a while before I could even do anything to remove it. The program would not allow me to install MBAM, so I rebooted to safe mode, however, this program had installed some hook into the OS that prevented me from installing even in safe mode. Stuck.

So, after some Google searching, I found this on BleepingComputer, it suggested to change the name of the .exe to something completely unrelated. It worked. Awesome. Of course, the .exe of the program itself needed to be changed as well. So I changed it to a random string of letters.exe. And it STILL wouldn’t work!

Apparently, this malware is detecting a certain runtime or signature of the executable and immediately killing it, regardless of the name. After a few minutes of thinking, I decided to try an experiment, right click on the exe file (now renamed), and click the “Compatibility” tab, and under compatibility mode (this was Windows XP, but should work in XP or newer) select to “Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 2000″. And…

It worked!

So, I guess I outsmarted the malware by tricking MBAM into thinking it was running under Windows 2000, making it undetectable by the malware program. And so, all said and done, MBAM was finally able to remove it, and the PC is working great. Hope this will help some other PC techs out there, when you don’t have the option to just wipe the drive and start fresh!

October 15, 2009 -- Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix
October 19, 2009 -- Get Rid of those Fake Antivirus programs with Remove Fake Antivirus
October 18, 2009 -- Microsoft’s Security Essentials : 1.5 Million Installs in One Week. Is it the End for Norton?

Tech Support Cheat Sheet Flow Chart

Dave Bonds — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:51:40 +0000

via Laughing Squid via xkcd

August 20, 2009 -- Technology Explained: How Does A Hard Drive Work?
December 14, 2009 -- We’re a Favorite Place on Google!
September 30, 2009 -- PC’s Infected with Malware Up 15 Percent In September

24 Killer Portable Apps For Your USB Flash Drive

Dave Bonds — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:40:23 +0000

Download Squad has put together an awesome list of portable apps for your USB flash drive.

Some of the apps I’ve used and would recommend are:

Check out the full list at Download Squad: 24 Killer Portable Apps For Your USB Flash Drive

August 30, 2009 -- Lock Windows With Your USB Flash Drive
October 19, 2009 -- Get Rid of those Fake Antivirus programs with Remove Fake Antivirus
October 15, 2009 -- Internet Connection Hosed? Try Winsock XP Fix

Technology Explained: How Does A Hard Drive Work?

Dave Bonds — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:22:40 +0000

Technology Explained: How Does A Hard Drive Work? from MakeUseOf.

August 31, 2009 -- Fixing a Computer Is Easy, Just Follow This Chart
August 30, 2009 -- MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Won’t Run? Here’s How To Fix It
August 24, 2009 -- Tech Support Cheat Sheet Flow Chart